Shawnee Lookout

E is starting school tomorrow so Mama decided to take him to go hiking. He was saying the Pledge of Allegiance in front of the sign. I guess he felt the need to do so. This is the longest trail in the park, about 2 miles. I was not sure if E could finish it by himself. I thought it might end it up with me carrying him somehow.

It was really intriguing to see this in the middle of the path. Obviously someone found the turtle shell and arranged this. I hope the poor turtle that lost this shell did not have a sad story to tell.

E was chasing all kinds of bugs and picking up rocks for protection. His backpack was so heavy that he decided to do some rock-skipping down the hill in half way. He loved this beetle. I looked it up on the web and found it was net-winged beetle.

E took this picture and I think he did a good job.

There were two lookout spots of great view of Ohio River and northern Kentucky. This park has lots of Indian history and burial mounds. I got to teach E about showing respect of the place and he talked about the Nephites and Lamanites.

E was complaining about the hike until he saw the steps. He ran most of the second half of the trail. After that he was exhausted.

A lady with a dog we met on the trail gave us this, a buckeye.

She cracked another one for us. We had never seen this before so it's a good learning for us since we live in the Buckeye State.

E managed to finish the trail all by himself. He even played in the sand and playground after the hike. We both enjoyed this special day!

Utah Trip

She was my mission daughter, which means I trained her when we were missionaries in Touliou 12 years ago. She was one of the most loving persons I met. She shared her Christmas gifts with me and taught me everything about service, charity and hard work. When I moved from Touliou, she put lots of "love" stickers on my giant luggage. I had the pleasure to visit her parents 11 years ago and I had strong connection with her mom. I was so happy to attend her wedding at Manti temple where I prayed that I could feel her mom and mine as well. I believe they probably talk about us in heaven from time to time. I was the guest of honor in the sealing room and the spirit was so strong. I am grateful for the friendship we have and am happy that she found her eternal companion. The wedding was so beautiful and everyone felt honored and appreciated, just as my sweet friend had prayed.

We were about to leave for our hiking trip to American Fork Canyon. I brought my smallest hello kitty backpack for convenience and my friend had to borrow from a 11-year-old girl. We got kicked out of our appearances.

The water in the mountain was nice and cold. Right after we stopped by this quiet place, something dramatic happened.

My friend saw a snake in the grass and screamed. As soon as I heard her, I screamed like crazy without seeing anything and tried to pass through it. We laughed so hard for 10 minutes after that. This was actually another snake we came across on the trail. We saw four in total, which I didn't expect it at all. The snake is officially the animal I am scared of.

I thought it would be fun to do some yoga poses on these two logs and it turned out to be very challenging. The surface was not flat and there was this fear of falling into the rocks and water. I don't know how those yogis always have the shots of doing arm balancing or handstand at the edge of the cliffs. I certainly need more practice.

Guess what we saw. It was right in front of us on the trail and then moved to the woods. It was a MOOSE and it's huge. We were very careful watching it's movement to make sure it would not come charging us.

The view was breathtaking. When we got to the top, a beautiful lake appeared.

It's sitting so quietly in the mist of the mountains. I had to call it "Lake of Shining Waters"(When Anne Shirley saw the Barry's lake, she called it by this name.)

What a great day we had!!! The smell of the trees was so refreshing. My friend told me all these aspens came from the same root. That made me think about everyone on this earth came from the same Father, our God in heaven. It is amazing!

This was Silver Lake Trail and it's about 3 to 4 miles. It took us about 4 hours because we stopped a lot on the way and also at the lake. It's a great place to visit.